After moving to the United States, I was fascinated and eventually hooked by the way Americans welcome the new year. There were New Year's Eve parties peppered with all kinds of excitement: sexy dresses, endless champagne, playful party props, dancing, counting down the seconds and kissing whomever is near while

Like many people, I thought fruitcakes -- like Twinkies -- came wrapped and packaged and were the kind of food that goes into the fallout shelter with you. It never occurred to me that real people made fruitcakes and consumed them in real time.
My mother had a stack of untouched